This Atlas makes available for the first time Illinois poverty data by legislative district. Elected officials now have the opportunity to understand how poverty impacts their own individual districts in three key ways: education rates, poverty rates, and median incomes. The data is also provided at the county level, for townships in Northeastern Illinois and by community area in Chicago. The information in the Atlas is derived from the 2000 U.S. Census with comparisons to 1990 Census data to establish rates of change in poverty. Taken once every decade, the U.S. Census presents an important opportunity to more closely examine population characteristics. These maps offer a unique geographic display of poverty issues in Illinois.

Congress pushed past the distractions of the election year to get more done on poverty-related measures in 2008 than the year before, according to the only national analysis that ranks Members of Congress solely on their performance in fighting poverty, released today.
The Shriver Center's 2008 Poverty Scorecard, www.povertyscorecard.org, acts as a year-end report card for every member of Congress. The Scorecard assigns letter grades to each member of the United States Senate and House of Representatives according to their voting records on the most important poverty-related issues that came to a vote in 2008.
In the Scorecard, four of the most important anti-poverty bills that Congress considered during 2008 passed both the House and Senate and were signed into law by President Bush. Two more were signed into law after being substantially amended; making a grand total of six important anti-poverty measures that became law. These bills address aspects of the economic downturn such as the housing crisis, unemployment compensation and the impact of high credit costs on students. Although Congress considered more important anti-poverty bills in 2007 than in 2008, only three of them passed both the House and Senate and were signed into law by President Bush.
"Overcoming poverty is a huge job that requires national leadership now more than ever," said John Bouman, Shriver Center president. "We hope to use the Scorecard to elevate the subject of poverty in the national policy dialogue, educate the public about why certain votes are important to promoting equal opportunity, and improve legislators' voting records by demonstrating that they will have to be accountable on these issues."
These votes, as well as in-depth bill summaries, poverty rate by Congressional district, analysis from the Shriver Center, and links to antipoverty resources, make up the interactive website through which users can simply click on a map to learn how well their representatives are working to end poverty:
* Although half of all Senators had a perfect A+ voting record and over half of all Representatives ranked an A or A+, only five of the 18 bills in the Scorecard passed both Houses and were signed into law by the President.
* Several states with high poverty rates have Congressional delegations that had poor records in supporting measures to fight poverty. (Kentucky's poverty rate is the fifth highest in the country, but its Congressional delegation ranked the 40th lowest of the 50 states.)
"No matter what your ideology, I think we all can agree that government needs to take some role in providing economic opportunities to all Americans during a tough financial climate," Bouman concluded. "We are looking for members of Congress to realize their performances on these issues are being assessed."

If we agree on a set of global sustainable development goals as the centrepiece for a post-2015 agenda, we will surely also need to agree on how to finance them. How do we get better data to tell whether we are on track to achieve a broad range of material and non-material poverty indicators? How do we give member states the tools they need to define, own and implement the post-2015 agenda to really address the structural issues keeping their citizens in poverty and limiting sustainable development? How do we ensure they have the global knowledge and financial support that they need to address poverty on the ground? These are key questions to consider as the UN, its member states, civil society and theprivate sector build on the High Level-Panel report, A New Global Partnership, and on the Secretary-General's report, A Life of Dignity for All.
In the following pages and online, Investments to End Poverty starts to provide some of the data and analysis that can inform discussions and help everyone make evidence-based choices.
The report looks beyond rhetoric on whether aid works, and the right balance between promoting growth and direct assistance to the poor, and provides detailed information based on available facts and figures. In doing this, it also reveals areas where we need to know more -- echoing the High-Level Panel call for a Data Revolution.

An analogy between the model of an atom and poverty of an individual in a poverty field is presented to construe that poverty levels are quantized in similar notions as in the models of an atom. This analogy provides a rational explanation of the observed phenomena in society in part as well as it can be used to predict future observations. Concepts proposed in this paper may lead to a framework to quantify poverty, absolute or relative, and suggest enhanced collaboration between moral science and natural science to study poverty dynamics

This factsheet provides a snapshot of the most recent census data on poverty, extreme poverty, low-income rates, child poverty, health insurance coverage, and median household income for Illinois, Chicago, and the 6-County region with and without Chicago.

Even before the recession, 2.2 million Chicago area residents were struggling in or near poverty, having difficulty finding jobs after getting laid off, experiencing homelessness after losing their house, being held back by low education levels, and finding it next to impossible to save for a brighter future. The traditional stepping stones to a better life -- gainful employment, quality education, stable and decent housing, access to health care and proper nutrition, and opportunities to build assets -- have always been out of reach for some, not just in these difficult economic times. As discussions continue on the best way to help the nation weather and emerge from the recession, the focus must be on meaningful policy changes that truly lift all boats and make us collectively a much stronger nation. If solutions do not specificallyaddress the needs of those whose lives and hardships are refected in this report, millions will be left behind, and we will all be left weaker and more vulnerable.

An analysis of the 2013 American Community Survey by The Women's Foundation finds that women continue to be disproportionately affected by poverty in the Washington region. We dig into the numbers in this fact sheet.

Rural Illinois is experiencing greater and greater declines in its well-being, growing barriers to economic viability and increasing disadvantage for economic and human development. 74 of Illinois' 102 counties are rural, non-metropolitan counties. Almost half of these rural counties have poverty rates higher than the state rate. **Limited job opportunity, limited access to health services, inadequate housing options, and declining populations perpetuate this rural poverty. This decline in regional development and growth is clearly linked to poverty populations facing poverty of housing, poverty of education, poverty of health, and poverty of opportunity. **This report examines population, economic, and basic needs issues in regions of Illinois, as defined by the Bureau of Tourism. These regions represent large areas of common demographic, economic, and geographic characteristics. Information on the South and Southwest regions of the state is highlighted, as they are disproportionately impacted by poverty. Data for each county in the state are included in the appendices.

This paper addresses a current methodological gap in poverty measurement, which stems from acknowledging the multi-dimensionality of poverty, on the one hand, and using an income/consumption measurement of poverty as thenorm, on the other.